© British Association of Social Workers
A National Survey of the Investigation of Child Sexual Abuse
Jo Moran-Ellis is a lecturer in the Department of Sociology at the University of Surrey. She specializes in research into organizational responses to child abuse, and the sociology of childhood
Nigel Fielding is Professor of Sociology at the University of Surrey, where he is also Deputy Dean of Human Studies. His research interests are in policing and in qualitative research methods. Nigel Fielding is editor of the Howard Journal of Criminal Justice and co-editor of the Sage Series in Social Science Computing
Correspondence to Department of Sociology, University of Surrey, Guildford, Surrey GU2 5XH, UK
Summary
The article reports a national survey of social services and police arrangements for investigating child sexual abuse (CSA). It is now officially accepted as good practice for police and social workers to jointly investigate such allegations. To evaluate investigative practice, the survey aimed to (i) document existing arrangements for police/social services investigation and management of CSA cases; (ii) identify the main organizational models informing such work, and (iii) explore the perceptions of police and social services managers of the key policy and practice issues posed by such work. The criteria for judging the benefits of joint work were: reduction in the number of occasions children were interviewed, clarification of the role of professionals involved, increased coordination of service delivery, and establishment of group support for difficult decisions. While there were signs that some benefit was being achieved, there were also indications of the endurance of problems long associated with multiagency work.